To teach revision means to break students of the one-draft habit and to intensify their engagement with the writing process, so that they are involved long enough and deeply enough for their best ideas to develop.


Understanding Revision: Differences between Experienced and Inexperienced Writers

To inexperienced student writers, revision means. . .

Scratch Out and Do Over Again: “I say scratch out and do over, and that means what it says. Scratching out and cutting out.”

Reviewing: “Reviewing means just using better words and eliminating words that are not needed. I go over and change words around.”

Redoing: “Redoing means cleaning up the paper and crossing out. It is looking at something and saying, no that has to go, or no, that is not right.”

Marking Out: “The changes that I make are usually just marking out words and putting different ones in.”

Slashing and Throwing Out: “I throw things out and say they are not good.”

Thus, revision as editing, focused mostly on words, with no concern for readers.


For experienced writers, revision means. . .

Rewriting: “It is a matter of looking at the kernel of what I have written, the content, and then thinking about it, responding to it, making decisions, and actually restructuring it.”

Rewriting: “Rewriting means on one level, finding the argument, and on another level, language changes to make the argument more effective.”

Rewriting: “In rewriting, I find the line of argument. After the argument is resolved, I am much more interested in word choice and phrasing.”

Revising: “It means taking apart what I have written and putting it back together again. I ask major theoretical questions of my ideas, respond to those questions, and think of proportion and structure, and try to find a controlling metaphor. I find out which ideas can be developed and which should be dropped. I am constantly chiseling and changing as I revise.”

Thus, revision as the greater part of writing, the process of discovering meaning, finding an argument, and determining effective rhetorical methods of communicating for their ideas.


Teaching More Sophisticated Revision Strategies

Provide students with opportunities for drafting and feedback.

Emphasize global rather than local (sentence-level) concerns when students are drafting and revising.

Remember, while sentence-level editing is important, it is best addressed at later stages in the writing process, once the argument and ideas have been revisited and revised.

Assign revision plans to engage students with the feedback they receive and describe their goals and choices when revising.

Ask students to reflect on their own writing processes.

Talk about your own writing processes and share models of your work in revision with your students.


Note: The above excerpts come from Sommers, N. (1980). Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers. College Composition and Communication, 31(4), 378-388. doi:10.2307/356588